


Heartbeats (or, Wherein Toph is Smarter and Generally More Awesome Than Everyone Else)

by audreyii_fic



Series: The Sparrowkeet Series [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 12:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audreyii_fic/pseuds/audreyii_fic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko shows up at the Western Air Temple, to varying levels of consternation of those present. Sparrowkeet!verse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartbeats (or, Wherein Toph is Smarter and Generally More Awesome Than Everyone Else)

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Another short one. Oh well. That's life.
> 
> This takes place when our self-exiled Fire Prince arrives at the Western Air Temple.

__

__

_**Heartbeats**  
(or, Wherein Toph is Smarter and Generally More Awesome Than Everyone Else)_

 

 

 

The cool evening air is blowing in off the canyon when she feels it. "There's someone coming," Toph says quietly.

Conversation halts. "Who?" says Aang, his tone worried. "How could anyone know we're here? If we've been found then it will-"

"Shut up and let me listen," she snaps (and then hears Katara's cluck of indignation at her bad manners). She concentrates, feeling the reverberations of the footfalls coming their direction.

Haru and the others are exploring the Temple, and Toph knows their gaits by now; not them. Sokka, Katara, and Aang are here around the campfire; not them. Suki is off doing Kyoshi exercises, and her steps are light; not her. Iroh and Hakoda are the only others who know where they are, supposedly, but their bodies are heavier and slower; not them.

These feet are solid but inaudible, and the heartbeat above them is doing double-time.

"It's a stranger," Toph says, "and he's antsy."

Several months ago, words like that would have led to scrambling; now, everyone just quietly stands. The scrape of Sokka's Space Sword being unsheathed is familiar, as is the clink of Katara's waterskin uncorking. Aang's airbending makes no noise, but then, it usually doesn't.

Toph herself squares her stance and feels the stones around her, ready to crush the intruder at a moment's notice, and absorbs the _step step step_ of his or her approach.

Thirty paces. Twenty paces. Coming around from behind the pillar...

" _You!_ " shouts Aang, and there's thundering in the earth as Twinkletoes runs toward the stranger. As she hears the _whoosh_ of a Firebender conjuring flames from thin air, Toph knows shit's about to go down.

"No! No, Aang, wait! Don't!"

Sometimes Toph has a little trouble following what's going on. Not much, given that she's blind, but a little. Things that occur in mid-air are a problem - which is where most of waterbending happens. Still, though, a _sploosh_ is pretty easy to comprehend, especially when it's followed by a certain Avatar sputtering.

There's a long moment of obviously surprised silence, then a soft, rasping: "Hi, Katara."

Oh. Toph only heard him once, shouting at them all in a deserted street, but she never forgets a voice. It's Gramps' nephew, Zuko.

She relaxes. Anyone okay by Gramps is okay by her. (While she would never, ever admit it out loud, Toph takes Iroh's word as gospel. He made her tea because he wanted to, not because he thought she couldn't do it herself.)

No one else calms down, though. "Katara, let me go!" (Twinkletoes must be frozen to the ground.) "I can handle him!"

"That's not a good-"

" _He took you away!_ "

"It's _complicated-_ "

"How did he find us?" Sokka shouts. "He could be bringing others!"

"Why don't we _ask_ instead of _attacking?_ " Katara shouts right back. "Zuko, how did you find us?"

"I hunted everywhere." There's still crackling in the air. Obviously Sparky hasn't put down his fireball yet. Toph considers doing something about that - a well-placed stalagmite under his butt oughta get the job done - but this is all just a little too odd to interfere with yet. Besides, he might be on fire, but the guy's vital signs tell her he's close to a nervous breakdown. "And it's just me. No one else is coming."

_Iiiiiiii_ nteresting.

"Well, that's just great," Sokka says, his politeness entirely sarcastic. "I absolutely believe that the Prince of the Fire Nation, who was rather deeply involved in the kidnapping of my one-and-only little sister-"

"War prisoner," Zuko mutters.

"-is just stopping by our secret camp for no reason when he _should_ be off torturing moose-lion cubs or pulling the wings off glow flies."

An exasperated huff that belongs exclusively to Katara. "Why doesn't anyone _listen_ to me? I _told_ you, that's not..." She trails off, and her heart rate - already beating only a little slower than Sparky's - speeds up to jackalope levels. Softer, she says, "Zuko, I _told_ them that's not how it is."

Toph's sightless eyes widen. Whoa. If Zuko's breathing gets any faster he's gonna hit the floor like a ton of bricks. "You told them..."

"How you helped me escape." Katara's tone is pointed, and her weight shifts, sending little tremors through the floor. "How you stopped Azula from killing me, and got me out of the prison hold. That's what I told them. That's what happened, right?"

"...yeah," says Zuko slowly. "That's what happened."

They're both lying through their teeth. _Veeeeeeeery_ interesting.

"But you wouldn't have been captured in the _first place_ if he hadn't fought us in Ba Sing Se!" Aang bellows. There are weird, choppy little vibrations all around his body - yep, Twinkletoes is frozen in ice. If he was thinking straight he'd be getting himself out, no trouble, but no one ever said the Avatar was the sharpest sword in the armory. "It's _all his fault you were gone!_ "

"Aang, if anyone's going to yell at the two-faced rat, it's _me_. I've got Big Brother rights, so get in the back of the line." Sokka's voice hardens, and there's just enough of a shift in his stance for Toph to know he's raising the Space Sword. "What are you doing here, Zuko?"

A long pause, then a sigh. The crackling disappears; Sparky's put out his flames. "I'm here to help."

"Yeah, _right_."

" _We don't need your help!_ "

"You don't, huh? Do you know what the Fire Lord is going to do when Sozin's Comet arrives?" There's a rustle. " _I_ do."

"Wait, are those battle plans?" Sokka asks eagerly. Snoozles is easily won over by scrolls, maps, and other things on paper.

"Straight from the Palace's war room."

Sokka lets out a tiny squeal.

"And you, Avatar," Zuko says, "have you mastered firebending yet? You have to learn somehow."

"Sifu Iroh was a really good instructor," Twinkletoes grumbles. "I don't need _you_ to teach me."

"Yeah, he does," Toph interjects cheerfully. "He stinks."

"Do not!"

"Aang, you kind of do," says Sokka. "You keep setting your clothes on fire. And remember when you singed Momo's ear?"

"He _burned Momo?_ " Katara gasps.

"It was an accident!"

There's angry chattering from the lemur in question.

"Well," says Zuko, dripping acid, "I'm convinced. Obviously you don't need any of my assistance."

"And you're so eager to offer your _assistance_ all of the sudden _why_?" Another shift from Sokka. He hasn't lowered the Space Sword. (Sometimes Toph suspects the Space Sword might be compensating for something, and when she thinks too hard about that she bursts out laughing at totally random times.) "Because the thing is - and correct me if I'm wrong - you're an angry jerk who hates us and keeps trying to capture the Avatar."

"And who _kidnapped Katara!_ " (Not that there's a possessive note in Aang's voice or anything. Toph manages not to roll her eyes. She likes Twinkletoes, really she does, but he's barking up the wrong tree with that one.)

" _I didn't kidnap her!_ " Zuko shouts, and there's sudden heat and another _whoosh_ of fire. _"She was a prisoner of war! There's a difference!"_

Katara is conspicuously silent.

"Tell us what's in it for you," Toph asks bluntly. Honestly, no one else knows how to get to the point around here. They'd be lost without her.

"Yes," Katara says. Her voice is calm, but it's got iron in it. "Tell us."

Sparky's heart thuds in Toph's feet. "I'm here for the Fire Nation," he says finally.

"Well, that's not exactly the answer we were looking for." Sokka's tone is hard now too. "Not sure if you noticed, but we're _fighting_ the Fire Nation, so if you're gonna-"

"No, you're fighting _Ozai_."

"Same thing."

"It's _not_ the same thing." Zuko starts to pace restlessly, his steps still surprisingly light. This is a guy who knows how to sneak. "My country is full of good people-"

Disbelieving noises.

"-and ending the war good for _everyone_. It's not the citizens' fault that this has gone on so long, it's my father's, and my grandfather's... but I could stop it, you understand? I could _stop the war_ , Katara, and then things would be... different."

Sugar Queen's breathing pauses before she says, "You want to be Fire Lord."

"It's the only solution."

A snort from Sokka. "You know, somehow, I'm not entirely sold on that idea." But there's a scrape; he's sheathed the Space Sword. "I have this vague recollection of being chased from one pole to another by some creep determined to help the Fire Nation take over the world. You want to tell us what's up with the one-eighty?"

"It doesn't matter why." Katara's interjection is just a little too quick. "Zuko will be a better leader than Ozai or Azula, and _someone_ has to be Fire Lord."

"Why?" Sokka counters. "I don't see why the Earth King can't just-"

Even from ten feet away Toph can _feel_ Sparky's body temperature rising, and Katara snaps, "That's not how it works. Aang's going to restore _balance_ , and that means _all four nations._ Right, Aang?"

"Right," Aang says reluctantly. Toph hears him take a deep breath, and then there's a _drip drip drip_ as the ice around him dissolves into water. "But there has to be someone else. What about Sifu Iroh?"

Toph snorts at this. "Trust me, Gramps doesn't want to rule. He's got plans for his tea house." (Toph is going to use the Bei Fong fortune to back his business, just as soon as she figures out how to get her parents to cough up the coins.)

"Is he here?" Zuko's voice is eager.

"Nope. He's off with Sugar Queen and Snoozles' dad, doing Very Important and Secret Things to prepare for the war." (It is a point of serious annoyance for Toph that she wasn't able to figure out what those Secret Things were before Iroh and Hakoda left. Somehow they always knew when she was trying to listen in.)

The disappointment off of Sparky is a physical thing. "Oh."

"He told us you'd show up sooner or later, though," Toph says.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he did." Sokka sounds reluctant, but he's thinking it over, Toph can tell. "And Sifu Iroh's turned out to be right about a lot of things."

There's a long moment of silence as everyone contemplates this.

"Well, _I_ think it's a good idea," Toph says flatly. "Twinkletoes has to learn the next level of firebending from somewhere, and we can't exactly go knocking on doors all over the Fire Nation, can we."

"I don't need firebending." Aang's obviously speaking through gritted teeth. "I didn't even _want_ to firebend."

"Too bad," Zuko snarls. "You're the Avatar." He says _Avatar_ the same way Toph says _sea slugs_.

There's a little hiss, like Aang's calling a wind towards himself. " _You hurt Katara._ I won't learn from you."

Sparky stops breathing and his heart rate increases at the same time. Now _that's_ just weird.

"You don't have to like me," says Zuko after a moment. It's pretty impressive, how cold his voice can be when all his body signals say he's barely holding his temper. "I don't like _you_. But there's no other way. My father's going to do _terrible things_ unless the Avatar stops him... and I think it's my destiny to make sure you know how. I think... maybe that's how I'm supposed to get my honor back."

"Your father didn't return it?" Toph's not sure how anyone (other than herself) can hear Katara speak. Her voice isn't any louder than the snapping of the campfire.

But apparently Zuko hears her, because he says just as quietly, "I don't want the honor my father's offering. Not anymore."

Toph frowns. What is this, with the two of them? This is... _something._ It tickles right at the edge of her senses. But Katara never said anything about she and Zuko even getting along while she was held captive, let alone...

No. Way.

"I'll be a good Fire Lord, Katara." Zuko's heart is pounding so hard Toph can't believe no one else feels it. "I promise. I'll be the Fire Lord my uncle should have been. My father, my sister, the generals... that's not what I am. That's not how it has to be. The Fire Nation can be better than that. I can change it. You know me."

No. _Way._

"Is he telling the truth, Toph?" Sokka's a pragmatist, and there's no emotion one way or another in his question.

Toph could answer _volumes_ on that, but she settles for, "Yeah. More or less."

Sugar Queen's feet move anxiously.

Sokka makes a clicking noise with his tongue. "Katara?"

"I believe him," she says. "Besides, he's a terrible liar."

Okay, seriously, _someone_ else has to be seeing this. It can't just be Toph picking up on it, right? Is everyone around here _really_ that dumb?

"Fine. If Toph and Katara both trust you, then I'm okay with it. But you're on probation, pal - step one foot out of line, and you're gettin' my Space Sword in your face." There's a reverberating thunk through the stone as Sokka drops down by the fire. "Is it time to get these potatoes out of the coals? I'm starving."

A harsh noise. Twinkletoes is grinding his jaw. Toph is reminded of when he first woke up from his injuries, how he called for Katara and they'd had to tell him she was gone. He'd nearly destroyed the entire North Pole in his rage.

"Aang," Katara says gently.

"He _took you away from me_."

Zuko's breathing and heartbeat leaps to the rafters at that, but there's nothing from Katara. Toph _does_ roll her eyes this time. It's taken Sparky all of ten minutes to see how Aang feels; Sugar Queen still hasn't picked up on it. Katara is the most oblivious person on the planet about these things.

"Yes, he did." Katara's voice is firmer now. "But that's _my_ problem."

"I can't-"

"You have to learn firebending. I know it's hard-"

" _How can you trust him?_ " cries the Avatar. "I was there, I saw how he turned on us, and then you were _gone!_ How can you just _forgive_ him for that?"

"I _haven't_."

Everything inside Sparky comes screeching to a stop.

_Wow._

"There's no other way, Aang. You have to do this. Please. For me."

Those are the magic words. He sighs, and Toph would bet her sole-less shoes that he nods reluctantly.

"C'mon, Twinkletoes," she says, walking forward and grabbing Aang by the arm. "Let's go bust up some mountains. You'll feel better in a jiff. Snoozles, don't eat all the food while we're gone."

"No promises," he says. "Hey, angry jerk, what're you doing with my sister's necklace?"

Two heartbeats spiking. "I, uh-"

"I forgot it on the ship."

"Yeah, yeah, you did. Um, here, you should have-"

" _No_ \- I mean, you keep- it's not- I don't want it."

"But it's _yours_ , Katara," says Sokka, sounding totally confused.

"I just _don't want him to give me a necklace, all right?_ "

"Jeez, fine, whatever. Yeesh." Sokka humphs. "Don't know what's gotten into you all of the sudden."

Toph starts to laugh, and doesn't stop for a _long_ time.

 

 

 


End file.
